Where, yes, in my lifetime
we were always seated and served,
a black girl child and her mother
hangin’ out in the empire city

Only you inhabit this memory
We, together in the shopping endeavor,
nourishing and sheltering after that special work
for you, a pleasure I never fully understood

Where you offer choices
and soft conversation
I want what you drink:
hot black cuppa java
scant spoonful of sugar and cream, cream
poured from ribbed glass and steel containers,
stirred by your stainless,
held just so

I eat the slender sandwich half, slowly,
mouth closed, chewing,
breathing this in
We are out together